Sharjah Police released on Sunday a new study that helps identify fraudsters on social media who con their way into the hearts and accounts of unwitting victims.

Colonel Dr Obaid Saleh Hassan, Director of the Electronic Services Communication Department of Sharjah Police, said social engineering can be used to reveal bad and risky accounts to prevent being duped by hackers.

There are various means adopted by the misusers of social media to target their victims and steal their money and there is a special technique called, “the art of penetrating the minds” that targets the maximum number of media users, Hassan said.

In this method, the victims send the hackers money unknowingly without knowing they have fallen prey to a scam.

Victims are often emotionally blackmailed into giving up their cash to a stranger who tricks their prey into believing a web of lies and deceit hinging on an urgent call for help

The best defence, said Hassan, is a good offence backed by awareness on how to spot online social media fraudsters.

“Many people fall prey to hackers who steal their money. Some of the victims even end up travelling from one country to another while believing the delusional claims of the internet fraudsters,” Hassan said.

The study “Using Social Engineering in Revealing Risky Electronic Accounts” was conducted by Hassan.

“The person who commits such fraudulent activities is named a social engineer. He is an intelligent actor who can easily read and understand the personality of the person in front of him. He uses various techniques that will make his victims believe his delusional claims,” he said. “Smart devices are widely used nowadays and the percentage has reached 200 per cent among society members with people using various social media for more than four hours per day,” he said.

 

TIPS

The study says there are ways of differentiating between genuine and fake media accounts.

 

* If a media account has a symbol picture of a girl or girl holding child it may mean the account holder wants to win the trust of the victims. Accounts of terrorist groups will often have a profile picture of a group or a team.

* The number of followers of media accounts is another way in addition to the type of followers. There are accounts for selling followers and their main aim is to target the maximum number of social media users.

3. The suspected users usually use the media more during the evening than morning as it is a preferable time to win the trust of their victims.

4. People with fake accounts [like companies selling products or account-selling followers] do not respond to general messages sent to them and prefer replying in private.

5. It’s not hard to find out whether an account is genuine or fake. This can be done by using one of the searching engine, for example goggling the name of the account to check if there is any warning mentioned by any person regarding the fake account

source : gulfnews